Readers' comments

Good to have some details in this article. As many details as possible about China's cyber activities would be helpful. Also I really think it would be a good idea if the Economist could move towards providing direct links, where possible, to online sources in its articles, to help to check claims made in them. On a personal note, I once, while living in China, made a call over Skype to family members in Switzerland. They mentioned that they had been to eat at a Tibetan restaurant, and then mentioned something about the Tibetan community in Switzerland. The Skype call (which was over Tom Skype, the Chinese version) immediately went dead. That shows at the very least the Chinese government has the power to recognize certain words spoken over the Internet, and if they can recognize the words, it is surely reasonable to assume they must have been recording the whole conversation. (Also, of course, they can block text messages mentioning certain words very easily).

Did you guys speak English over Skype? It would be amazing that Chinese could design an English voice recognition system that good. Just curious, can you reproduce the crash by repeating the same words or using other sensitive words like freedom or democracy? If not, it's just an accident.

To TarH33I
I cannot vouch for the validity of this particular observation. But I think you will find the pattern reported very consistently by expats who live in China. Not just for Skype, but for text messages, phone calls, emails, and more.

Speaking hypothetically, if an opponent were engaged in activities detrimental to the economic well-being of a country would that country not be justified in retaliating in like manner?
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For example, if the target of a cyber attack were Babcock, a commercial company that makes the launch platform for Britain's nuclear deterrent, would the victim of the attack be commercial or military?
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It isn't so easy to make such a distinction when the effect of an attack on either victim is the same - IE to degrade a country's ability to defend itself.
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I expect any country's intelligence services would regard retaliation as justified in either case.
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There are so many ironies in all this. Given the fact that China is writing some of the existing software, this is (on occasion) China hacking into their own code - simplifying things. Of course, getting hacked while reading about hacking provides an irony all in itself. It is so much like a hegemony where the Chinese Communist party holds the real power. But ultimately the real power comes from their ability to hack into the banks - and (from their perspective) who could blame them for tracking their own investments.

The West doesn't understand the Chinese Confusion way of doing things. Good or evil, white cat or black cat, as long as it is to China's advantage. The Chinese Dream (it might be a nightmare for the West) has to be fulfilled. China is different. China doesn't believe in Western hypocritical values like ethics, fair play, honesty and all that rubbish. That's for the ignorant masses and the muppets. Just ask Goldman-Sachs. Power comes from cheating on a massive scale. China will beat the West in spying, stealing and hacking. There are Chinese everywhere (even at Harvard an Stanford, not to mention Confucius Institutes) in this "globalised-internet-connected-world" Who is going to stop us from doing what we are good at?
I copy, therefore I am (ancient Chinese wisdom)

one of your source of information is the State Dept. cable released by Wikileak. The issue is whether the information in the cable is the truth. Many countries had disputed the accuracy of contents in the cable. Even the US Govt. had advised many countries to disregard the leaked cables. The information in the cable was collected by the staff in US embassy in the respective country and might have misinterpreted it.

Compared to the GOVERNMENT run anglo-texan cyber spying and thievery China are choir boys.

The USUcK shame revealed :

Worldwide spying network is revealed

MEPs confirm eavesdropping by Echelon electronic network

Echelon is part of an Anglo-Saxon club set up by secret treaty in 1947, whereby the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, divided the world between them to share the product of global eavesdropping. Agencies from the five countries exchange intercepts using supercomputers to identify key words.

The intercepts are picked up by ground stations, including the US base at Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire, and GCHQ's listening post at Morwenstow in Cornwall.

In the cold war, eavesdropping - signals intelligence, or Sigint as it is known in the trade - was aimed at military and diplomatic communications. Helped by increasingly sophisticated computers, it has now switched to industrial, commercial targets - and private individuals.

The MEP's report - which faced opposition from the British and American governments and their respective security services - was prompted by claims that the US was using Echelon to spy on European companies on behalf of American firms.

France, deeply suspicious of Britain's uniquely close intelligence links with the US, seized on reports that Echelon cost Airbus Industrie an £8bn contract with Saudi Arabia in 1994, after the US intercepted communications between Riyadh and the Toulouse headquarters of Airbus - in which British firms hold a 20% stake."

Linked to the NSA

Inside is the world's most sophisticated eavesdropping technology, capable of listening-in to satellites high above the earth.

Facility is said to be capable of 2m intercepts per hour

The base is linked directly to the headquarters of the US National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Mead in Maryland, and it is also linked to a series of other listening posts scattered across the world, like Britain's own GCHQ.

The power of the network, codenamed Echelon, is astounding.

Every international telephone call, fax, e-mail, or radio transmission can be listened to by powerful computers capable of voice recognition. They home in on a long list of key words, or patterns of messages.

I was just reading up on what you drones did to Falun Gong followers, and WOW!!! I've always known it, but talk about a lowlight reel of what garbage the Chinese Communist Party is.

I always like to point out how everybody uses the analogy of Nazis far too often to compare stuff to; but I believe after summing up everything, i'm ready to label the Chinese Communist Party as the 21st Century's new Nazis.